Electronic displays are increasingly common in public areas. Such displays may show content such as text, images, video or graphics, and the content may change over time (e.g., in a sequence of different advertisements). Sometimes, electronic displays in public areas are connected to a computer at a kiosk in a fixed location. A user at the kiosk can enter information into the computer, and the display may change in response to the entered information. However, such kiosks typically can accommodate only one user at a time, so the number of users that can affect the output of the display is limited. Moreover, such displays typically do not accept input from other computing devices. In some public settings, such as stadiums, a display can show SMS messages sent by mobile phone to a particular phone number (e.g., a phone number controlled by the public display). However, the content of SMS messages is limited to plain text, and significant latency (e.g., delays of several seconds, minutes, or more) can occur while waiting for SMS messages to be delivered to the target phone number, or while waiting for the content of the messages to be interpreted and filtered (e.g., by a human moderator) before being displayed.
With the increasing popularity and sophistication of mobile computing devices (e.g., tablet computers, smart phones), there exists a need for enhanced, real-time interactions with public displays.